Woman: Trip To Braiding Shop Ends With Trip To ER

Greensboro, NC -- What started as a trip to the beauty salon to get her hair braided, ended with two trips to the emergency room, according to Veronica Carter.

Carter said at first she liked her braids, which took about six hours to get done.

But a few weeks later, that changed.

"I got up and I was crying in the middle of the night and I was praying and crying like God please don't let me die," said Carter.

"The braid came out and it was like a little white bump," she said. "The headaches became just on one side and it was migraines and it was like a heat sensation."

"My whole face was swollen, my eye was absolutely shut," said Carter.

She went to the emergency room twice and paperwork she was given on the second visit states she may have MRSA, an infection that doesn't respond to the usual antibiotics. She said she is taking four antibiotics, though.

"He told me it's because the braids was too tight," said Carter about her hospital visit. "He said her nails, anything up under the nail, if her nails was sharp or if she took it and tried to braid it and maybe cut me right here and I didn't notice it."

State regulators are now stepping in to make sure something like this doesn't happen again. Starting July 1, hair braiders are required to pass a test and get licensed.

"Once they pass that exam, they will just file for licensure. If they do not take the exam, though, by July 1 2011, they're all going to have to go to school and obtain 300 hours and then take the practical and written to get licensure," said Lynda Elliott, Executive Director of the North Carolina Board of Cosmetic Arts Examiners, which now regulates the industry.

"You can cause track balding and of course all these other issues, infection, inflamed areas," said Elliott.

An employee at the shop told WFMY News 2 Carter should have come to them sooner with her complaint.

Carter hopes her story prevents it from happening to someone else. She said the braid shop offered to redo her hair, but she didn't want that. She wanted her $180 back, which she said they wouldn't do.

"This right here is going to be a mark for the rest of my life, this scar. My hair is not going to grow back."